Natalia Ivanova |
I understand Quinn, but I wanted to make the point that Natalia does not follow convention in this respect (although she might be wearing shorts, no one has checked as far as I know).
But, as a rule, Bats usually don't wear dresses while flying if they can help it, this is a quirk of Natalia's.
And being a quirk, it should be mentioned.
UltraFennec |
And yet, Natalia hasn't pushed herself forward as the leader yet. In fact, Rosza Juette seems to be the de facto leader because she has the largest group of minions, and because she seems to act like she is.
I may be reading into this too much, but the "taskmaster and assistant" model for grouping task resolution doesn't really care about the group's nominal leader. It's entirely an OOC, player mechanic designed to give the group the best chance of success on a given task. And while normally you're supposed to talk it over and agree on who the taskmaster is, I've yet to see anyone in any of the livestreamed games or in my own play experience pick anyone other than the "best" person for the job.
AKA: I don't really care who rolls the extra assist dice, it only really makes a difference in who I address when dealing with the discoveries pertaining to them.
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont |
Natalia Ivanova said wrote:And yet, Natalia hasn't pushed herself forward as the leader yet. In fact, Rosza Juette seems to be the de facto leader because she has the largest group of minions, and because she seems to act like she is.I may be reading into this too much, but the "taskmaster and assistant" model for grouping task resolution doesn't really care about the group's nominal leader. It's entirely an OOC, player mechanic designed to give the group the best chance of success on a given task. And while normally you're supposed to talk it over and agree on who the taskmaster is, I've yet to see anyone in any of the livestreamed games or in my own play experience pick anyone other than the "best" person for the job.
AKA: I don't really care who rolls the extra assist dice, it only really makes a difference in who I address when dealing with the discoveries pertaining to them.
That is my understanding as well. If only one character has a given skill, and other characters are assisting that character, then that character is the 'leader' in terms of the taskmaster/assist thing. Others roleplay their efforts to help in diverse ways, throw their dice to see if they can add a die to the leader's pool.
(And if the only qualification for 'leadership' is 'loudest, pushiest', then Rosza Juette is probably the leader nine times out of ten until some other noble with a better claim to landed title pushes back. Though she has been known to exercise common sense. The fact that she HAS minions doesn't mean the rest of the party ARE minions. I imagine that as different situations bring out different people to the front, they will take the lead in those situations! And this situation really does seem to be more the bailiwick of an analytical mind rather than a conniving one.)
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont |
Just a query/clarification:
There've been offhanded mention of guards/mercenaries by NPCs, and Rosza has flat out mentioned/asked about them, including where they were hired and if there were survivors, without EVER getting a response. Not even really an evasion, just no response.
Is this a GM oversight or at this point am I correct in thinking that nobody Rosza has talked to has admitted to knowing a damn thing about whether there WERE guards hired, whether any survived or not, and at this point we're looking at an ambush site with NO corpses of guards?
UltraFennec |
You are correct in the latter. I probably could have said it again for clarity, but since the cart and such are contracted for Fleet Feet on the Harrowgate end, Cedric doesn't know about guards and he doesn't pay them personally, nor did Jean-Yves. You are looking at an ambush site with no guard corpses.
Interesting, wouldn't you say? ;)
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont |
...And when Rosza asked our sparrow friend about surviving guards she got a lot of nothing. Does it look like there was a FIGHT here, in the sense of a contest between armed men, or does this look more like a mugging?
NOT THAT ROSZA WOULD (ADMIT TO) KNOWING MUCH ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE, NOR DOES SHE HANG AROUND PEOPLE WHO WOULD DO THAT SORT OF THING (OFTEN).
UltraFennec |
Jean-Yves plain doesn't know anything about the guards. He's just a courier, and was hired to take a look around for the sites. He has no idea how to tell if there was a big fight or not. I should have made that clear.
As for your question, no, it doesn't look like there was a fight here at this site. Just a dead driver, no animals, and no stuff left after a cart ran off the road and was apparently broken.
UltraFennec |
It does a GM's heart good to see players picking up on clues without having to bonk them over the head with obviousness, though it still feels like that to me...probably because I wrote the adventure and I already know the plot elements, lol.
Do I need to input anything IC, or are we go for site the next?
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont |
I am all kinds of amused that RJ was waving the pistol around as a sort of nervous habit at the talk about necromancy and warlocks...And now has seized on a target for it. It ever so fortuitously plays into her being a bit of a paranoid as well as a capricious weasel type.
Delroy's guarding spell, I presume is a non-visible effect?
Rosza Juette de Vieuxpont |
Well, I finally talked with James, and he's decided to bow out of the PbP in favor of attempting to get into my Book of Jade skype game recruiting over on the Sanguine forums.
Which means we have a space free...
Sorry to hear that.
On the other hand, you DO have a campaign set up currently in a way that would be easy to merge more people in. And weren't there a few other applicants who 'couldn't make the cut in time' back then?
UltraFennec |
There were, but I've also got someone VERY interested that I already know is a good PbP player, so I think I'd rather bring her in, provided that's not unwelcome to everyone else.
Aaaaaaaaand I'll update with some scared Sparrow in a few hours when I'm not actively playing in a game myself.
UltraFennec |
Mystic is in the corebook on...I wanna say page 55 because I just looked it up last night.
Basically, you choose a type of magic and get a bonus d12 for academic research involving said magic type, for detecting said magic type, and for inquiring into incidents related to your chosen type.
So you'd take "Mystic: [chosen magic type]," being whichever specific type of magic you're versed in. Being an apprentice of "x" magic still requires having the appropriate apprentice gift.
I have noticed that there's nothing particularly like Thaumaturgy in Zhongguo, so if you're attached to it I'll leave it up to you whether you want to change or not. Maybe Quinn was schooled in Calabrese ideas and magics in preparation for this great westward journey? Though why you didn't also learn the language then would be a mystery of sorts.
Quinn Hildring |
Yes , I was thinking of immortal magic at first, but that is gonna take a lot of gifts before I can use any of it.
I think a Taoist then, though I still want to have melee ability so I will keep the sword and such. I will figure out the specifics tonight, but it would be interesting to have learned the basics of thaumaturgy but will see.
UltraFennec |
Well, the basics of Thaumaturgy would require spending all three of your starting Gifts on the necessary Trappings, Apprentice Gift, and Literacy: Calabrese...which you can't take without having Language: Calabrese.
I'll allow you to have the Trappings if you really want them, but it might be better to pick Gifts that help or reinforce the new build and let it be known that you're picking up Thaumaturgy stuff from Delroy as you explain Taoism to him.
Speaking of Taoism: DEM HEXAGRAMS. Dangerous elemental magics there. I thought you might go for Changes since it's got the semi-weird aspect Thaumaturgy does, but having Taosim makes for some interesting combo possibilities with Natalia. Supposedly Elementalism can even be routed into Hexagrams...
UltraFennec |
UltraFennec wrote:Alternatively if you still want to do melee but be unique and "wizardy" about it, there's the Volcano school of Martial Arts, based on using Taoism to enhance one's melee abilities.Lavabenders?
No, they're more like straight firebenders. The "volcano" name comes from the specific type of iron fan they use with some techniques, the Volcano Fan...though most of the fan techs allow you to use any iron fan weapon. :\ There's a few unarmed ones, and also a staff tech as well.
The general trend of Zhonggese stuff seems to be flat damage ratings, often weak tagged, but rolling two traits and two skills for the attack roll, whereas Ironclaw has more stuff with higher damage overall, but you generally only roll two or sometimes three stats to activate, with damage being success dice plus a small rating.
UltraFennec |
Also I'm sorta waiting on other folks' reactions to J-Y's little babbling brook impression there.
Yeah, I'm waiting to interject the Gang's impression along with Guillaume's convenient restate recap until after everyone's had a chance to go WHAT?! or "I saw that coming" as fits their idiom.
Quinn Hildring |
I have decided to take taoist career with the others being the sword dancer gifts so I can take extra career next gift, after that I will increase my magic.
Is this an alright change?
old gifts
c Thaumaturgy Apprentice
c Thaumaturgy Trappings
c Literacy
Die hard
Reflection
Ambidextrous
new gifts
c Taoist Apprentice
c Taoist Trappings
c Literacy Zhongwén
sword dancer trappings
Fencing
ambidextrous
career skills
lose observation
gain dodge